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American Morning

Minding Your Business: NBC, Universal Soldier

Aired September 03, 2003 - 07:53   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. Vivendi and NBC say let's make a deal. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, this is a prospective deal. They've agreed to talk exclusively, and it looks like they will do a deal. Of course, NBC is owned by corporate giant GE, Vivendi. This troubled French conglomerate that owns all kinds of things fell into trouble.

It's an interesting deal. It's a big deal. They're looking to create a media giant putting NBC together with Vivendi's Universal Studios, which makes some of the things that you see here on your screen and, of course, a bunch of cable networks like the Sci-Fi Network and USA, which has my favorite, the dog show. But it's a big deal. It's going to -- you know, they're trying...

O'BRIEN: It's kind of a risk as well, though, because many people have pointed out and critics have said, you know, NBC hasn't really done Hollywood, and it's a risky business.

SERWER: That's right. Well, that's right. And, you know, what they're saying here -- and the GE people have very sharp pencils. They still could walk away from this transaction. That's important to note. But what I think they're saying here is that entertainment is one of America's great businesses and it's one of the things that you can export and it's something that's going to grow over the next 5 to 10 years. They're looking to put their money here.

And you're right. NBC was the only network not connected to a movie studio. Think about the other ones -- ABC, CBS, even CNN is connected to a movie studio for goodness sakes; Fox, of course, also. They're looking to couple it. I'm not so crazy about these deals. If you want to get milk, you don't have to buy a cow, right? In other words, if you want to do a deal, you can just do a joint venture. You don't have to buy the whole cow to do the thing. So, we'll have to see.

Obviously the people -- Bob Wright (ph) at NBC knows this stuff a lot better than I do, but we'll have to see. And don't be surprised if there are some last-minute hitches to this thing.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the market yesterday -- a big rally. SERWER: Another big rally. And, you know, September is such a terrible month for the markets traditionally, like August is a bad month, but we are really seeing some great stuff here. Look at that -- 107 points on the Dow, 31 on the Nasdaq, S&P over 1,000, which is that big benchmark everyone was hoping it would stay above.

But here's an interesting chart, Soledad. Five years going back to the fall of 1998, the S&P 500 has gone nowhere -- 1,000 to 1,000 straight across. So, you know, yes, it feels good to get back over 1,000, but we're right back to where we were in September of 1998. Year-to-date numbers, however, are fantastic for all of the indexes. We're up about 17 percent for the Dow, 37 percent for the Nasdaq.

And the economy may be picking up, and we're going to be talking about that a little bit later on when we do "Where the Jobs Are." We're going to be talking about...

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SERWER: That's right. We're going to be talking about the mortgage re-fi business and how that continues to go great guns even with interest rates ticking up. Still a lot of jobs there to be had.

O'BRIEN: Great. Thank you. And we'll see you a little bit later this morning.

SERWER: OK, great.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired September 3, 2003 - 07:53   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Business news now. Vivendi and NBC say let's make a deal. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Good morning, Soledad.

Yes, this is a prospective deal. They've agreed to talk exclusively, and it looks like they will do a deal. Of course, NBC is owned by corporate giant GE, Vivendi. This troubled French conglomerate that owns all kinds of things fell into trouble.

It's an interesting deal. It's a big deal. They're looking to create a media giant putting NBC together with Vivendi's Universal Studios, which makes some of the things that you see here on your screen and, of course, a bunch of cable networks like the Sci-Fi Network and USA, which has my favorite, the dog show. But it's a big deal. It's going to -- you know, they're trying...

O'BRIEN: It's kind of a risk as well, though, because many people have pointed out and critics have said, you know, NBC hasn't really done Hollywood, and it's a risky business.

SERWER: That's right. Well, that's right. And, you know, what they're saying here -- and the GE people have very sharp pencils. They still could walk away from this transaction. That's important to note. But what I think they're saying here is that entertainment is one of America's great businesses and it's one of the things that you can export and it's something that's going to grow over the next 5 to 10 years. They're looking to put their money here.

And you're right. NBC was the only network not connected to a movie studio. Think about the other ones -- ABC, CBS, even CNN is connected to a movie studio for goodness sakes; Fox, of course, also. They're looking to couple it. I'm not so crazy about these deals. If you want to get milk, you don't have to buy a cow, right? In other words, if you want to do a deal, you can just do a joint venture. You don't have to buy the whole cow to do the thing. So, we'll have to see.

Obviously the people -- Bob Wright (ph) at NBC knows this stuff a lot better than I do, but we'll have to see. And don't be surprised if there are some last-minute hitches to this thing.

O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about the market yesterday -- a big rally. SERWER: Another big rally. And, you know, September is such a terrible month for the markets traditionally, like August is a bad month, but we are really seeing some great stuff here. Look at that -- 107 points on the Dow, 31 on the Nasdaq, S&P over 1,000, which is that big benchmark everyone was hoping it would stay above.

But here's an interesting chart, Soledad. Five years going back to the fall of 1998, the S&P 500 has gone nowhere -- 1,000 to 1,000 straight across. So, you know, yes, it feels good to get back over 1,000, but we're right back to where we were in September of 1998. Year-to-date numbers, however, are fantastic for all of the indexes. We're up about 17 percent for the Dow, 37 percent for the Nasdaq.

And the economy may be picking up, and we're going to be talking about that a little bit later on when we do "Where the Jobs Are." We're going to be talking about...

O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

SERWER: That's right. We're going to be talking about the mortgage re-fi business and how that continues to go great guns even with interest rates ticking up. Still a lot of jobs there to be had.

O'BRIEN: Great. Thank you. And we'll see you a little bit later this morning.

SERWER: OK, great.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.